Department for Education

Schools: Broadband and WiFi

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2022 to Question 256 on Schools: Digital Technology, what factors are used to determine a priority area; and if he will publish further details on the work being undertaken by his Department with commercial providers to accelerate gigabit capable broadband rollout to schools.

Will Quince: Up to £150 million will be invested in our Connect the Classroom programme to upgrade schools that fall below our Wi-Fi connectivity standards in priority areas. At this time these are educational establishments within our 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs), which include the places where attainment is currently weakest.  The qualifying criteria within these areas is:All schools in our 24 Priority EIAs, as part of our intensive investment to address entrenched causes of underperformance and barriers to improvement; andThose within EIAs below the Ofsted rating of Good, i.e. rated Requires Improvement or Inadequate at their last assessment. These schools are most in need of the benefits improved connectivity can offer, so that they have more tools at their disposal to ensure high-quality teaching and drive improvement. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-investment-areas-selection-methodology.Further details on the government’s separate programme to accelerate the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband to schools can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-rural-primary-schools-to-get-huge-broadband-upgrade.

Department of Health and Social Care

Department of Health and Social Care: Aviation

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much their Department has spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.

Maria Caulfield: The total cost of commercial flights taken by DHSC Officials are shown in the following table: DHSC Officials (staff) Calendar Year Value 2020£13,3912021£14,8262022 up to the 31st May£49,061 Spend on Ministerial commercial travel is published quarterly on gov.uk.